Donald Trump may have just exposed himself on the world stage as an unequivocal champion of white supremacist Nazi hate, but his racist regime has been aiding and abetting domestic terrorists, like the ones in Charlottesville, since his band of white supremacists took over the White House.1

Trump has stacked his administration with bigots and racists and repeatedly legitimized Nazis and white supremacists, giving them license to engage in senseless killing and bloodshed. His racist administration recently cut federal funding for programs devoted to dismantling white supremacist and Nazi hate groups in the United States.2 In May, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a warning about the escalating threat of radical white extremist violence.3 But Trump’s hateful administration has done nothing to curtail this growing crisis.

The only way we can defeat Trump’s hate is to stand united against it. Together, we pushed white supremacist Steve Bannon out of the White House and toppled Trump’s business council. Now, we must use the same grassroots power to demand that the federal government take the threat of white extremist terror seriously and act.

What white supremacists planned in Charlottesville was more like a military invasion than a protest.4 They seemed more committed to inciting violence and raising the profile of their extremist movement than staging a peaceful rally.5

Heather Heyer, the anti-racist protester who was recently killed by an extremist Nazi sympathizer, is just the latest victim of white supremacist terror. In 2015, white supremacist Dylann Roof committed one of the most violent acts of domestic terrorism in our recent history when he brutally murdered nine people in a historically Black church in Charleston. Earlier this year, white supremacists killed a Black man in New York and two white men defending a Muslim woman in Portland.6

Many traditional corporate media outlets position these terrorists as lone wolves, but it is important to remember that they are a part of a growing movement. The number of Nazi sympathizers on Twitter has grown by more than 600 percent since 2012.7Trump’s racist rhetoric and administration are encouraging and empowering them to take their hate offline and to the streets.

Refusing to acknowledge the real risks posed by radical white extremists started before Trump even entered the White House. In 2009, DHS released a report focused more broadly on the risk of domestic terror from white supremacists, radical anti-abortionists, and a few “disgruntled veterans” whose resentments could lead to domestic terrorism or recruitment by violent or extremist groups. But faced with backlash from conservatives, DHS withdrew the report and disbanded the unit that created it, the Extremism and Radicalization Branch of the Homeland Environment Threat Analysis Division.8

In 2015, progressive champions urged President Obama and DHS to update its assessment and re-open the unit, but they did nothing.9 Now, the Trump administration is continuing this dangerous trend. Recently, anti-Muslim Trump aide Katharine Gorka, wife of known Nazi sympathizer and Trump advisor Sebastian Gorka, pushed DHS to eliminate federal funding for programs that exclusively confronted white supremacy.10 With Nazis and white supremacists planning more public displays of their racism and hate, we must demand that the federal government do more to protect us.

Trump openly supported the white supremacists who marched through the streets of Charlottesville spewing anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant and anti-Black hate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker Paul Ryan and many other Republicans have publicly denounced white supremacist hate groups, but their cowardly statements have stopped well short of calling out Trump by name. Until Republican party leaders stop introducing policies that throw people of color, LGBTQ people and immigrants under the bus, their words have no meaning.

In a desperate attempt to control the damage from Trump’s latest vile, unacceptable and racist rants, Rep. Michael McCaul, chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, just tacked a discussion about right-wing hate groups onto an already-scheduled hearing on domestic terrorism on September 12.11 But that is not enough. Domestic terrorism by the hate-filled white supremacist pro-Trump movement is on the rise. If Republicans really cared about keeping their constituents safe, they would take bold action and root racists and racism out of their party and platform.

Members of Trump’s administration and party, especially Rep. McCaul and his counterpart in the Senate, Sen. Ron Johnson, have a choice: Side with the white supremacist-in-chief who condones violence, or put the safety of their constituents first and make sure the federal government fights against hate.